Microsoft Surface: Behind Microsoft's New Tablet

Microsoft Surface: Behind Microsoft's New Tablet

For years Microsoft has let other companies make the computers while it makes the software. The Surface tablet is a break from that tradition. It is the first tablet Microsoft has made itself.

Microsoft

Microsoft Surface: Behind Microsoft's New Tablet

For years Microsoft has let other companies make the computers while it makes the software. The Surface tablet is a break from that tradition. It is the first tablet Microsoft has made itself.

Microsoft

Microsoft Surface: Behind Microsoft's New Tablet

Microsoft began working on the Surface three years ago in a design studio at its headquarters in Redmond, Wash. The goal? Create the best tablet to show off Windows 8.

Microsoft

Microsoft Surface: Behind Microsoft's New Tablet

The lead designer of the Surface, Ralf Groene, holds up one of the 3D printed, non-working Surface mock-ups. There were over 250 design mockups before the final design was decided upon.

Microsoft

Microsoft Surface: Behind Microsoft's New Tablet

The Surface is a tablet, but it also has a Touch Cover that clicks in to the bottom. That cover is also a keyboard. The keys don't actually depress, but the soft, touch surface recognizes and molds to your fingers.

Microsoft

Microsoft Surface: Behind Microsoft's New Tablet

This is the inside of that Touch Cover. You can see the touch sensors. After hundreds of iterations, Microsoft says it was able to get the Touch Cover under 2mm thick.

Microsoft

Microsoft Surface: Behind Microsoft's New Tablet

"Every part was designed with a purpose, nothing happened by accident," Panos Panay, the GM of the Surface, said. There are more than 200 custom parts in the tablet and keyboard.

Microsoft

Microsoft Surface: Behind Microsoft's New Tablet

In a Microsoft reliability lab in Redmond, a robotic machine twists the hinge on the keyboard millions and millions of times over to test durability.

Microsoft

Microsoft Surface: Behind Microsoft's New Tablet

Microsoft set out to make the Surface like a book. Here is a photo of one of the production units, which start to ship on Oct. 26, 2012, for $599.